Pink Chameleons (Finland) – Colors seem to fade (track from a twofer)
Its kaftans and open-toed sandals time, man. Pink Chameleons is the band led by Paltsa-Kai Salama of Black Lizard fame, returning with their first new material in over two and a half years, the twofer (two for the price of one) ‘Colors seem to fade’ and ‘Meat Deluxe’
Space only permits me to examine their true ‘Colors’ tonight, and in any case it comes with a video you have to see.
The song has been around for ages and was originally performed live by Black Lizard, thence in a solo band and also in the early years of Pink Chameleons. But it’s never been properly recorded prior to this new version.
I haven’t heard anything quite like this for a while. Pink Chameleons positioned themselves as a Garage/Blues/Country Band when they formed in 2016 but this is classic psych.
While psychedelic music never went away and there are annual festivals for it all over the place including right here in Manchester and even though we’ve reported on other psych bands on the Soliti label before now, ‘Colors seem to fade’ drags me right back to the sixties, San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury, counterculture ‘n all. It could be a line out of ‘A whiter shade of pale’ except that Procul Harum was English of course.
Always good to hear a sitar in the opening bars; it’s what you might expect from any psych track and it gets the piece off to a cracking start and it is complemented surprisingly fluidly by guest saxophone from Jussi Hurskainen and then by mellotron.
Even The Beatles at their most Indian-inspired level of creativity wouldn’t have mixed those three instruments.
Past the halfway point the song really gets into its stride and rocks its way through to its conclusion, revealing perhaps just a little of their original raison d’être, and by which time I was tripping without the need of any substances.
As for the video, it could be the next Stargate that astronaut Dave Bowman kaleidoscopes his way through in 2001 – A Space Odyssey, after he’s conquered the world.
This release precedes more activity from the band in 2024.
Pink Chameleons are:
Paltsa-Kai Salama: Vocals, guitars, electric sitar
Antti Sauli: Bass
Ville Hopponen: Drums
Video by: Krista Salama, Paltsa Salama
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkchameleonsmusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinkchameleonsmusic/
Welt (Sweden) – Easy (single)
Welt says “I have a tendency to develop feelings for people when they don’t have feelings for me” (tell me about it), “and they develop feelings for me when I don’t have feelings for them” (a new one on me).
She describes herself as “an over-thinker with a messy mind.”
Her mother wanted her to find someone where it’s ‘Easy’ and those words stuck with her. Why is love always so complicated? she ponders, why is it never easy for her?
Yes I suppose we’ve all been there and it’s always a successful formula to turn those thoughts into music, confident in the knowledge that there will always be an audience out there that can relate to them.
I wasn’t convinced I was going to like ‘Easy’, because it might be too sugary sweet for me or because it might dig up memories I’d rather keep in the closet.
But her straight-talking, from the heart honesty, combined sensitively with her sweet vulnerability won we over, together with a chorus that will lodge in your memory banks. It’s easy listening for a topic that’s difficult to articulate.
You can’t help but want to buy her some chocolates or flowers, give her a shoulder to cry on.
This is the second single from her forthcoming debut EP, following ‘Take care of me’, which she says was “more of a happy song.”
She’s based in Stockholm but originally out of Linköping and has been active as a songwriter for several years, for others.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisisWelt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisiswelt/
